Thoughts on professional e-sports players?

[Stanly Kwok]

As a former video games addict myself, who used to play 6 - 12 hours a day on holidays and weekends, this post is not meant to encourage people to play more, rather I am asking for your opinions and encourage everyone to look for other things to do than playing video games.

E-sports is one of the fastest growing "sports" in the world. More people are getting addicted to video games and wanting to be professional e-sports players. 

I would like to know your thoughts, e.g. can this be a good thing? If not, how do we stop this?

Considering top e-sports players make millions of dollars each year.

Thank you!

[MuMuMelon]

I don't know if this is a good thing or not. It seems obviously unhealthy, in the same way doing anything to that kind of extreme is not healthy. The kids that are getting into playing video games at that level have a skill in them that is almost supernatural. While I think it's amazing that the (very small) percentage of gamers can express themselves at that level, I can't help but think what they could do if they put that talent towards something worthwhile. Obviously, different people will have different definitions about what is worthwhile. I believe that it's a waste of talent but at the same time it makes that particular talent obvious. 

But what about all the hopefuls? All the kids that want to be gaming legends but just don't have what it takes? These are not easy questions to answer. As somebody who is in the process of quitting gaming it's very difficult for me to find any kind of positives that could be generated from gaming to that extent. The truth is I gamed to that level with no expectation of anything other then getting to play the games. Is it better or less addictive to play video games with the intention of playing competitively in the future? I don't know. I don't like the idea of people finding their identity in the video game space, and I think (much like athletes) that it's almost inevitable they they will.

That's just my two cents. 

Great question. 

[Stanly Kwok]

17 hours ago, MuMuMelon said:

I don't know if this is a good thing or not. It seems obviously unhealthy, in the same way doing anything to that kind of extreme is not healthy. The kids that are getting into playing video games at that level have a skill in them that is almost supernatural. While I think it's amazing that the (very small) percentage of gamers can express themselves at that level, I can't help but think what they could do if they put that talent towards something worthwhile. Obviously, different people will have different definitions about what is worthwhile. I believe that it's a waste of talent but at the same time it makes that particular talent obvious. 

But what about all the hopefuls? All the kids that want to be gaming legends but just don't have what it takes? These are not easy questions to answer. As somebody who is in the process of quitting gaming it's very difficult for me to find any kind of positives that could be generated from gaming to that extent. The truth is I gamed to that level with no expectation of anything other then getting to play the games. Is it better or less addictive to play video games with the intention of playing competitively in the future? I don't know. I don't like the idea of people finding their identity in the video game space, and I think (much like athletes) that it's almost inevitable they they will.

That's just my two cents. 

Great question. 

Thank you for your opinion. This is not an easy topic to discuss. I have a lot of thoughts on this, but I can't put them together into words yet. I will be back once I have settled my thoughts on this. Thank you again for your opinion 😄